Editorials category, Page 10
Editorial: What can Pittsburgh learn from Green Bay and the NFL Draft?
Hosting a large sporting event can be a shiny brass ring that cities are eager to grasp. Sometimes it’s scored by merit. If your baseball team makes it to October, your city could be home to the World Series. Check off opponents along the way, and the puck could drop...
Editorial: The Webb Telescope is making incredible discoveries. It may go dark
Even in the depths of space, there’s no escape from politics. The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope is parked 1 million miles away. In the nearly three years since it became operational, “Webb,” as it’s called, has made some incredible findings. Webb uses infrared scanning to show how stars...
Editorial: Data centers’ power usage must be monitored and managed
Computer data exists in a series of electronic blips. They are the 1s and 0s of a code that compiles, catalogs and categorizes billions of pieces of information. Storing information physically takes up a lot of space. Think about how much room your cassette tapes, compact discs, DVDs, VHS tapes,...
Editorial: PennDOT should up the speed on completing Route 356 property purchases
Route 356 in Buffalo Township sees lots of traffic. It also sees a number of crashes. To address that, PennDOT believes the best solution is to widen the road. The agency plans to take the two existing lanes and bump them up to five. The project is projected to cost...
Lori Falce: Want women to have kids? Value motherhood more
If the Trump administration wants to encourage women to increase the birthrate in America, there are ways to do it. We could create a culture that values women’s decisions to have a family. That might be what proposals being bandied about are intended to do. A $5,000 cash bonus to...
Laurels & lances: AI and air
Laurel: To new technology. Everyone is talking about artificial intelligence and its impact on various industries. We know it can help write letters for offices and chat with customers on a website. It can help personalize marketing materials, automate manufacturing and protect information. But it also can help in public...
Editorial: Less participation in local government is a lost opportunity
Pennsylvania has 67 counties, 500 school districts and 2,560 municipalities. With each step down that ladder, there are more and more opportunities for people to step up and participate in their government. There are commissioners, controllers, registers and clerks at the county level. There are directors for school boards. There...
Editorial: Delay in announcing Penn State campus closures will impact student choices
Penn State is making decisions about which of 12 Commonwealth Campuses the university might close. The decision has been dangled since February. President Neeli Bendapudi announced then that she had a team compiling recommendations. The university has its flagship campus at University Park and 19 branches scattered across the state....
Editorial: Pope Francis provided a voice for many — and an example to be emulated
Requiescat in pace. That is the Latin phrase abbreviated as R.I.P. on so many memorials. The common English use “rest in peace” does not do it justice. “Rest in peace” is a direction or an order. A more accurate translation is “May he rest in peace.” The simple addition of...
Editorial: The financial crisis of 2025? Better to be ready
If there’s one thing investors have learned in recent days, it’s that there’s no way to guess what America will do next. With its on-again, off-again tariffs, the administration has demonstrated a willingness to shock markets. Amid such radical uncertainty, a financial crisis isn’t out of the question. Policymakers need...
Editorial: Hunting for joy at Easter
Easter is about a joy that isn’t given. It is sought. On the Fourth of July, joy lights up the sky. On Halloween, we knock on doors and ask for it. On Thanksgiving, it is spread out on the table. On Christmas, it is wrapped up and tagged and placed...
Editorial: How did Pittsburgh’s overtime budget go so wrong?
In November, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey proposed a 2025 budget that didn’t just hold the line on 2024’s spending, but it also reeled it in by 3%. In December, Pittsburgh City Council passed that budget with few changes. They did so despite concerns over aspects that felt unrealistic. Specifically, there...
Laurels & lances: Cancer & crime
Laurel: To cancer research. Luca Bertucci, 17, of Murrysville understands what it’s like to have cancer. As a sophomore, he received inpatient chemotherapy for Burkitt’s lymphoma, a rare, aggressive lymphatic cancer. After seven months of treatment, today he is in remission. When his girlfriend, a member of a Leukemia &...
Editorial: For college students’ sake, let’s be reasonable with visa enforcement
Imagine for a moment having your whole life derailed by a traffic ticket. You decided to study business in Mississippi, and, after getting that degree, you applied to graduate school. You looked at all of your options and picked Carnegie Mellon University. Just getting in is a coup. Carnegie Mellon...
Editorial: Right to Know Law can be fixed, if lawmakers would do the right thing
A Pennsylvania court has decided the people don’t need to know about communications between state lawmakers and lobbyists who court them for influence. Nonprofit newsroom Spotlight PA asked for communications between some state senators or their staff members and lobbyists. It was part of a corruption investigation involving the city...
Editorial: Political violence must be decried every day
During Passover, the Jewish people remember the liberation of their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. It is a time of reflection and rejoicing. It is marked by solemnity and celebration. On Saturday, Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family celebrated at the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence with guests. At 6:07 p.m., he...
Editorial: University funding should be reformed, not reduced
Six months before World War II ended in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote a letter to his top science adviser. Could the wealth of technical knowledge developed for combat, he asked, spur the peacetime economy and improve public health? The resulting treatise, presented to Congress in 1945, established the...
Editorial: Term limits return power to people
American government is representative. We pull from our neighbors to find the people who should lead us. But we don’t put those people in place forever. Or at least, we don’t plan on it. Frequently, however, it seems to play out that way. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is 91....
Editorial: What are your rights regarding your property?
According to Pennsylvania law, your land is not your possession and affords no expectation of privacy. That was the argument Deputy Attorney General Anthony Kovalchick made to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court this week. The case in question was an appeal of a case brought by two hunting clubs against the...
Laurels & lances: Cops & cop-outs
Laurel: To finding balance. Many police departments have struggled with filling open positions and retaining officers. At the same time, a number of officers have been stepping away from law enforcement in recent years. Part of the reason has been about pay, but another major factor has been burnout and...
Editorial: Stock market volatility affects everyone
The stock market has been unruly over the past week. On April 2, President Donald Trump announced a broad swath of reciprocal tariffs on nations — and some uninhabited islands — around the world. On April 3, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,679 points. The Standard & Poor’s 500...
Editorial: What will Trump’s new review mean for U.S. Steel deal?
The U.S. Steel roller coaster is continuing its wild ride. On Monday, the White House put out a memo that reset the clock on the question of selling the American steel manufacturer to Japanese giant Nippon Steel. The almost $15 billion deal was first announced in December 2023. U.S. Steel...
Editorial: Counties should account for children’s Social Security
Transparency is important for more than just keeping government accountable. We tend to think about transparency as finding out what someone did wrong. Want to make sure this government department didn’t spend your tax dollars frivolously? Want to know where your legislator got his campaign donations? Want to see exactly...
Editorial: Republicans can have their tax cuts and benefits, too
Congressional Republicans face some tough math. They want to extend tax cuts, set to expire this year, that would add perhaps $4.5 trillion in new deficit spending. To offset such extravagance, they plan to come up with $2 trillion in spending cuts. Can it be done, as the White House...
Editorial: Pittsburgh’s ‘New Ivies’ demonstrate educational importance
Some colleges are considered better than others. It might not be fair. It might not even be accurate. But perception can shape reality. For generations, the Ivy League has been seen as the gold standard of U.S. colleges and universities. The Ivy League is a group of eight northeastern schools...
